Totally agree with Michele Martin: "If anyone needs training in critical thinking on the Internet, it's the adults who are still living in a world where media is something they consume unquestioningly because they've never had the experience of making it themselves. It's the adults who were raised on 'authorities' and 'experts,' in a monocultural world where many subcultures remained hidden from view and therefore assumptions about 'truth' and 'fact' were not questioned." For younger people, I would recommend much more subtle forms of critical thinking I've been discussing recently, in addition to the ones they already know: design patterns, television tropes, and the rest. [Comment] [Direct Link] [Tags: Video, Adult Learning, Experience]

Not long after George Siemens and I launched our Connectivism course, Michele Martin, Harold Jarche and Tony Karrer launched their own Work Literacy structured in a very similar manner and using Ning as the aggregating agent (we used my own gRSShopper). Harold Jarche posted his reflections a few days after the course ended. The current post is Michele Martin's reflection. Interestingly, their experience was almost exactly the same as ours. Martin adds a list of things she'd change for next time: a shorter course, more consistent structure, more explicit sharing of responsibilities. See also Tony Karrer on the course design. [Comment] [Direct Link] [Tags: Connectivism, Traditional and Online Courses, Experience, RSS, Online Learning]

It seems odd to say that it's the internet that is making one stipud when the cause of said stupidity - homophily - is so easily addressed using that self-same internet. [Comment] [Direct Link] [Tags: none]

The six reasons offered in this article are all variation on the theme "you don't encourage comments". For myself, while I encourage people to comment, my preference is always to see them express their views in their own space. The intent of this website isn't to create a 'community' around the author, it is to share knowledge and foster learning, including the development of a mature network of self-sufficient individual online resources. More commentary on this topic from the Bamboo Project. [Comment] [Direct Link] [Tags: Project Based Learning, Networks]

Interesting post not only touting the concept of the personal learning environment (PLE) but also describing how hers is built from existing applications. Good stuff. Via Brent Schlenker. Related: Clive Shepherd summarizes my talk on PLEs at the eLearning Guild conference in Boston. Also, Stephen Powell on the talk. What I am trying to describe is more than just an aggregation of current desktop apps - it's a bit like the digital lifestyle aggregator described by Marc Canter, but I don't seem to be able to convey what happens when all the parts are actually linked together. [Comment] [Direct Link] [Tags: Personal Learning Environment]